


One Night In Casualty

by amyfortuna



Category: Doctor Who
Genre: Alternate Canon, F/F, Femslash, Hurt/Comfort, Kissing, Medical
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-05-11
Updated: 2008-05-11
Packaged: 2017-10-06 03:59:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,312
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/49443
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amyfortuna/pseuds/amyfortuna
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written for the Martha/Rose ficathon. One of the prompts I was given was "Nine and Rose meet Martha before she meets Ten." I consider this to have taken place at some point between The Doctor Dances and Boomtown.</p>
            </blockquote>





	One Night In Casualty

**Author's Note:**

> Jossed by 'The Stolen Earth' and 'Journey's End'.

Martha was working the ‘casualty shift’ late one night at Royal when they came in. The ‘casualty shift was so named for two reasons, firstly because it was done in the casualty department at the front lines of the hospital, and second because it was twelve hours long so by the time it was over you were just as likely to be a casualty yourself as anyone you’d treated.

She spotted the two of them right away as she rushed through to see someone else, this old junkie someone had been Good Samaritan for who was her first patient of the night.

The blonde girl was her second patient. The older man who was with her (her father? she thought but wasn’t sure) had carried her in, looking almost as frightened as she did.

The girl, ‘Rose Tyler’ she read off the chart, had been triaged and was lying in a bed when Martha got there. The man was sitting in a chair next to her, and they seemed to be sharing some private joke together as they whispered to each other, Rose smiling even though her face was twisted with pain.

“Hello, I’m Martha Jones, I’m a student doctor here,” she said. “What’s wrong?”

They both looked up at her together. “My ankle,” Rose said, gesturing to her left foot, which the shoe and sock had already been removed from. “I think I’ve twisted it or something. I can’t put any weight on it at all.”

“Right, okay,” Martha said, moving to the end of the bed. She gently took Rose’s foot in her hand. “Tell where it hurts exactly,” she told Rose.

Rose winced almost immediately.

“Just there, along the top and side of the foot,” she said. “I was running, and I think I stepped wrong on some gravel,” she looked up at the man who was with her, “and next thing I was on the ground.”

“This was the closest hospital,” the man said, in an accent that vaguely reminded her of her cousin in Manchester. “Seeing what time it is.”

“You fell?” Martha said. “Does anywhere else hurt?”

“They’ve already cleaned up my hands and my knees,” Rose said, displaying her right hand, which was covered by a plaster along the base of her palm at the juncture where her hand met her wrist.

“Okay, you’ve probably twisted the ligaments in your foot. Injuries like these usually take a few days to heal up depending on how severe they are.”

She paused, her hand on Rose’s foot. “We’re going to want to send you for an X-ray just to make sure you haven’t broken anything.”

“That’s fine,” Rose said. She turned to the man with her. “Doctor, do you know if Jack’s found anything yet?”

Martha gave a quizzical look at the man. If he was a doctor, why he hadn’t he done anything more than carry her in?

“I told him not to come back until he found the source of the aphronitrum.” Rose nodded. “There could be some of you apes, meaning no offense” — he looked up at Martha — “in a world of hurt if we don’t track the source back and remove it.”

Martha shook her head. “So you’re some kind of scientist?”

The man smiled. “In a sense.”

Martha looked back at Rose to find her smiling with a slightly embarrassed look on her face.

“Don’t mind him,” she said.

Martha raised her eyebrows. “Oh, I won’t,” she said. Turning to walk away, she spared the man one last glance. He was looking out the window with a faraway gaze on his face.

“Miss Tyler, they’ll be by in a little while for your x-ray,” she said, and drew the curtain.

* * *

It was nearly two hours later when Rose went for her X-ray, foot bandaged and on what they called a ‘chill pack’. Martha smiled and waved, looking up from her paperwork briefly, as Rose passed by in a wheelchair.

The man wasn’t visible at first, but glancing around, Martha could see him. He wasn’t with Rose anymore, he was sitting in the waiting room talking intently with someone in a long black coat. Martha could only see the guy’s back, but the two of them seemed to be having a very animated conversation.

All of a sudden, the man and his companion got up, apparently having seen something out of the window, and rushed out of the hospital.

Rose came back to her bed before the two men returned.

It was slow, as Monday nights in casualty generally were, and Martha finished her paperwork early.

“Miss Tyler?” she said, slipping through the curtain to stand at Rose’s bedside.

“Could you please call me Rose?” the girl asked. “Everyone calls me that.” Rose gestured to the chair that her ‘doctor’ had vacated. “And have a seat, if you don’t have to rush off.”

Martha took the seat, leaning forward to check the bandaging on Rose’s hands. “Believe it or not, you’re the only patient I’ve got left, so barring any alcohol-related incidents, I’m all yours.”

Rose looked up at the clock on the wall. It read quarter to 2. She sighed. “Well, there will always be the crazy students drinking on Monday nights, but even then, right now’s exam period, so I suspect probably not.”

“Even the muggings are at an all time low right now,” Martha said, and quickly added, “but I shouldn’t say that, ‘cause everytime I do the next person to walk in’s been mugged.”

Rose grinned, leaning forward toward Martha a little. “So you know you hear stories about weird sex stuff that sends people to Casualty? Do you get any of that?”

Martha laughed. “You would not believe — !”

“People get up to some freaky stuff, yeah?” Rose grinned.

“Seriously. There was once a guy in who had these weird scratches all over his chest that had become infected. When we asked, he finally confessed he’d done it himself. With a cheese grater.”

Rose clapped her left hand over her mouth. “Oh my god.”

“Worst part was when he told Nurse Randall he preferred it when pretty girls did it!” Martha was laughing now too with Rose, her hands around Rose’s bandaged right hand, fingers caressing the unblemished skin of her palm.

Rose shook her head, still laughing. “I heard of, like, masochists and stuff, but seriously.” She glanced at Martha. “It’s not like my own sex life is exactly missionary position twice a week myself, but that’s just out there.”

Martha smiled. “Well, if I had a sex life to speak of…” she trailed off. “It’s mostly been study and here, and family.”

Somehow they had slipped underneath each other’s radar. Martha would say it was definitely Rose who’d started it, but Martha found herself all too willing to carry it on. Something made her draw back a little, though.

“So when are those two guys you’re with going to be back?” she asked.

“Not sure,” Rose said. “They’re investigating a problem with the water system. Shouldn’t take them too long, I hope.”

It was a lie, that about the water system, Martha recognised it immediately. Rose was a little too obviously honest to lie on a regular basis, and the sideward glance told everything. Martha paused on her next breath.

“Hopefully not,” she said, drawing a deep breath and deciding not to call Rose on it. They’d only met that evening after all, and what Rose’s associates did was not her business.

There was a bit of an awkward pause. “So are my X-rays going to appear anytime soonish?” Rose asked, then.

Martha gathered the student doctor cloak around her, and dropped Rose’s hand. “I’ll check,” she said, and fled the room.

The X-rays weren’t quite ready, and Martha found herself in the break room, lecturing herself. Rose was a patient, she was supposed to be a professional, she couldn’t let Rose make her heart get all fluttery, couldn’t let Rose slip past her defenses. She’d likely never see the girl again.

“Those X-rays are ready for you, Miss Jones,” the technican said, opening the door of the room a bit.

“Any breaks in the foot?” she asked, tensing herself for the answer, torn between the chance of Rose getting to stay for a while, or Rose being not badly injured.

“Not a thing, I’d say she’s just strained those tendons a little,” the technican said before closing the door. Martha let herself exhale, feeling somewhat relieved.

A quick stop down the hall to grab the X-rays and Martha went back to Rose’s bed. She was lying down now, her eyes closed. Her hair tumbled in blonde waves on the dark blue pillow. She looked like an angel with messy makeup.

“Rose,” Martha found herself saying, very gently and softly. Rose opened her eyes.

“I’m really tired for some reason,” she said sleepily.

“It’s not far off three AM,” Martha said, “and you’ve had a trying day.”

Rose sat up, brushing her hair out of her eyes. Martha couldn’t resist reaching out a hand and helping her, smoothing the hair back. This was miles beyond her professional guidelines, but for some reason she wasn’t feeling guilty.

Not when Rose smiled, and let her hands drop, let Martha do it.

“So your X-rays are back,” Martha said, sitting down next to Rose again, “and actually, you’ll be fine. You’ve not broken anything. You just need to rest, put ice on the foot, and keep it elevated for a couple of days, and you’ll heal right up. Ibuprofen might help with the swelling.”

Somehow the sense of intimacy had returned, and try as she might to put on the doctor’s voice, stay professional and distant, Martha found herself melting. Rose had moved to the edge of the bed, ostensibly to look at the X-rays, but in reality the position was almost a cuddle. Rose’s head was just at her shoulder, her clothing had slipped a bit and Martha could see her cleavage, and just a touch more intimate, the top of her bra.

“Good,” Rose said. “I’d hate to be in hospital for days.” She looked up at Martha and it was all Martha could do not to kiss her. “Though it might not be so bad if you were around.”

And Martha suddenly couldn’t resist anymore. Rose was surging up to meet her and it was nothing to lean down a little and taste those lips. The kiss was gentle and slow, Martha’s hands wandering to catch Rose around the waist, to draw her closer.

Martha pulled back a little, having somehow forgotten to breathe. Rose wore an angelic, innocent smile, with a touch of mischief woven into it.

“Oooh, I could definitely have more —” she began but stopped abruptly when the curtain was drawn aside. A handsome stranger in a long black coat peered down at them.

“Carry on, ladies, don’t mind me,” he said, grinning at them. Martha pulled away from Rose as the man who’d brought her in appeared as well.

She stood up, in fact, and cleared her throat. “I was just telling Rose here that she’s not broken her ankle. It’s just a strain, and she should be fine as long as she keeps her foot up and on ice for a few days.” She glanced over at the trio and was perplexed to see them all trading glances behind her back, speaking apparent volumes to each other with just a look.

“Bedrest for our Rose, then?” the handsome man said. “I’m sure it’ll be a hardship, but I promise I’ll do the best I can to make Rose’s stay in bed pass swiftly.”

Martha couldn’t help but laugh, the man was so over the top.

“Jack!” Rose said, laughing herself.

“So,” Martha said, attempting to regain doctorly control, “You are free to go when you’re ready. If you need more ice packs, the nurse will give them to you.” Quickly, she typed something into the computer next to the bed. “I’m also prescribing some painkillers.”

Rose looked over at the two men. “Would you mind just stepping outside for a second?”

Jack put on a mock pout, but obediently moved away from the curtain along with the other man.

Rose put out a hand. “Come here,” she whispered.

Very gently, she pulled Martha down and whispered in her ear, “I wouldn’t trade my life for anything, but I think somewhere, in another universe…”

She trailed off, and Martha looked up to see her looking off for just a second, and then she said aloud, “I wish you could come with us.”

Martha shook her head, though she was smiling at Rose. “Come where?”

“Anywhere at all,” Rose said. “But you won’t.” She took a deep breath. “But trust me, you’d love it.” And then her mouth was on Martha’s again, kissing her deeply, almost aggressively, pulling her very close. When they broke the kiss Rose was breathing heavily, her hands cupping Martha’s face.

“Someday,” she said. “I’ll come back and see you again.”

Martha took a deep breath. “That would be nic-no, that would be lovely,” she said.

Rose let go of her, and as Martha stood up, twitched the curtain aside. The two men stepped in, the older man gently helped Rose out of bed, while Jack stood ready to help.

“Take care of yourself, Rose,” Martha couldn’t help saying.

Rose flashed a grin at Martha while standing on one foot, half-supported by the ‘doctor’ beside her.

“You too, love, you too,” she said, and limped out of the room on the arms of her men.

Martha stood silent, hidden by the curtains, until she was sure they were gone.

Stirring herself at last, she looked at the clock. It was just past three AM, and some poor soul who’d been mugged was due in anytime. She needed to be ready.


End file.
